Comments on: An update (and lessons learned) on the Liturgy of the Bookhttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/
History and sexual politics, 1492 to the presentTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:59:04 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2By: Announcing Summer Writes III | Ye Olde Royle Bloghttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-2065209
Mon, 12 May 2014 19:09:15 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-2065209[…] Four pages a day? Five pomodoros? Are you shooting for a #graftonline? Keeping Historiann‘s cloister-like schedule? Are you going to read some books or articles? Spend a day in archives? Look for grants and […]
]]>By: Spring Writes: Week 2 | Ye Olde Royle Bloghttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1913582
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:27:49 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1913582[…] night, and her advice inspired me to get up a little early this morning to crank out some writing. Historiann has written about the value of continued engagement with her research for making forward progress […]
]]>By: The Problem of Writing and Working For a Living - Tenured Radical - The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1911639
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 23:56:02 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1911639[…] get any writing done during the semester. Historiann writes about her own writing plan this fall here: that pretty much mirrors my experience. By about week six, every fall semester, my own writing […]
]]>By: Tenured Radicalhttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1908576
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 18:10:02 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1908576I’m with the group saying good for you for getting done what you got done. I think one lesson to be learned is that the time from beginning of term to midterm is exploitable for writing, and after midterm not so much. This has always been my experience when on full time duty. The other lesson is not losing touch: creating some kind of a schedule, regardless of how miniscule, to keep things moving means that the project moves forward relentlessly, if slowly. And it strikes me — chapter four and part of chapter 5? — you are getting close to the finish line if there is a 1,2, and 3 there as well.
]]>By: truffulahttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1905886
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:13:18 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1905886writing exposing the holes in one’s argument

This is true in my (science) experience as well. Something that might not translate directly but for which I’m sure there is a parallel is starting the writing from a good set of illustrations (feature maps, plots of data, etc.) that tell the story.

I find that I often can’t just sit down to do something very technical–like reading about a new methodology or reviewing a manuscript–without a creative warm up. That could be drafting illustrations for a project or a lecture, working on a personal art project, or the like. I can be struggling to focus on a really dense text, spend 30 minutes working on a poem or a drawing, and then go back to the original and get right into it.

]]>By: ntbwhttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1905759
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 21:15:52 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1905759Great progress on the book! I have always been an early riser–that’s just how my body clock works. I’ve also found I can do stretches of very early rising (3:45-4:00am) for shortish periods of time–though I tend to do it to fit in long training runs rather than to work on my research. But my problem is I CANNOT go to bed at 9:00 (not because I’m not tired, but because my 12 year old son’s day is not over at that point–he has gymnastics until 9:00, and then he still needs to get something eat, often finish up homework, etc). So while getting to bed by 10:00-10:30 and getting up at 4:00 is OK for a while, eventually the sleep deprivation outweighs the training benefits of the longer runs. I can imagine the same would be true of my capability for sustained thought if I tried to write at 4:00am.
]]>By: Perpetuahttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1905446
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:49:05 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1905446I think what you’ve expressed here about writing exposing the holes in one’s argument is the strongest argument for stopping research sooner rather than later. Get to writing! I’ve been saying to myself. I have a lot more reading to do, but frankly, I don’t really know what I have – and what I don’t have – and the only way to know that is to start trying to put ideas together and see where the holes are.

I would really like to try the 4 AM wake up idea. I’m not sure it’s realistic in my circumstances, but maybe I’ll give it a go, now that I’m nearing writing myself. It’s very helpful to hear that it might make sense to try the experiment for discrete chunks of time, rather than the whole semester. I was also getting a lot more personal work done in the front half of the fall semester, and then fell into the black hole of grading and service in the second half.

]]>By: Susanhttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1905391
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:51:55 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1905391Congratulations on getting a few chapters drafted! It’s also useful that you know you can do this in bursts, but not for long stretches. I tried something like this some years ago, and found that I need to ease into writing, so tempting as the early morning blitz is, it didn’t work for me. As Koshembos noted, we all work differently!

But I also want to echo Northern Barbarian: the scholars of the 50s and 60s (and even later) thought nothing of spending ten or more years on a book. When the humanists tried to copy the science model of productivity, we created an impossible task for ourselves. Because no one should have to work a 60 or 70 hour week to do their job. (I’m assuming that between 6am and 9 pm you did at least 9 hours of work on various tasks associated with your job, and that you take a day off a week…)

]]>By: Comradde PhysioProffehttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1904799
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:30:44 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1904799By my standards, getting done with 2/3 of the writing you planned is awesome progress! And yeah, you can’t keep up that kind of effort without a break. I am convinced that the concept of periodization as applied in the context of athletics applies equally in the context of intellectual effort.
]]>By: koshemboshttp://www.historiann.com/2014/01/15/an-update-and-lessons-learned-on-the-liturgy-of-the-book/comment-page-1/#comment-1904752
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 22:18:08 +0000http://www.historiann.com/?p=22272#comment-1904752My work habits differ drastically from my wife’s habits. Two of my kids diff in their works habits and aren’t close to mine. We talk about three scientists and one brilliant health care analyst. My youngest work habits resemble mine.

Differences of work habits become clear in college. My friend would study until 2am before an exam while I went to the movies. We both did well in the exams.

If it works for you, great. Otherwise, change the way you go about your work. Whatever works for you.